Review | SKAGEN’s ‘Falster’ smartwatch

[Advertisement – this is a paid partnership with SKAGEN, but all words and opinions are my own]

Is it just me, or is technology becoming more stylish by the day? There are all sorts of good-looking headphones, chargers, speakers and more on the market now, and I love the fact that I no longer have to choose between form and function.

One of my go-to brands for pretty gadgets is SKAGEN, which makes stylish, understated watches that appeal to my love of all things minimalist. I already own and adore one of its hybrid smartwatches, so when I was asked to review the ‘Falster’ – its first full smartwatch, complete with a touchscreen and voice control – I was instantly intrigued.

First of all, it’s by far the best-looking smartwatch I’ve come across. Most of the others I’ve seen are chunky plastic things that resemble old digital watches from the 1980s, but this one is elegant and timeless, with a round face. The cheapest version is £279 / €299 / $275 and comes with a black or brown leather strap; I have one of the slightly more expensive steel-mesh versions, which are available in silver or rose gold and cost £299 / €329 / $295. You can also buy other straps and easily swap them around to suit your mood and outfit, and there’s even a choice of different on-screen faces (everything from a classic clock to contemporary digits) to help you personalise the watch’s appearance.

But it’s certainly not a case of style over substance, as the ‘Falster’ has all sorts of useful functions that make daily life that little bit easier. It runs Android Wear 2.0, which is Google’s smartwatch operating system, and this means you can see and respond to notifications, stream music, use Google Assistant, and download apps via Google Play. In the interests of honest reviewing, I have to say that it took me a while to set it up with my iPhone (the process would probably be a bit quicker with an Android phone), but once I’d done this everything worked really smoothly.

Particularly handy for me is being able to sync the watch with my Google calendar, so that I get reminders of deadlines and appointments – essential on busy days, or those times when I get so carried away writing blog posts that I forget I’m supposed to be meeting someone! I can also set it to alert me to calls, texts and emails if I want.

Also very useful is the map feature, particularly when I’m travelling or dashing between meetings. I used to have to navigate my way around using Google Maps on my phone screen, but now I can just glance at my wrist while I’m walking – so much easier, and a lot less conspicuous! And the weather app means I can look up the forecast wherever I am the world, which is a huge help when deciding what to wear each morning – the watch even alerted me to a snow warning when we had blizzards a couple of weeks ago.

I found the fitness app very helpful, too. There’s no heart-rate tracker, which serious exercise fans might miss, but it certainly does everything I need it to: I can track how many steps I’ve taken each day, how far I’ve walked and how many calories I’ve burned, and I can set myself goals to work towards. There’s also a timer feature, which I use when I’m doing Pilates work-outs at home (and when I’m cooking!).

The watch holds its battery life well and I find that a full charge is enough to get me through a full day’s wear, particularly if I set the screen display to light up when I tap it rather than staying visible all the time. And a small detail, but I love the little animation of a stick person dragging a plug cable which appears on the screen when I place it on the charger!

All in all, I’m really impressed with SKAGEN’s ‘Falster’ – it’s stylish, it’s practical and it fits seamlessly into my life and wardrobe. And anything which helps me become a little less reliant on my phone is certainly a good thing in my book…

All photography by Abi Dare